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Fugitive Iraq VP says his bodyguards, employees jailed in
secret prisons and subjected to torture |
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Fugitive Iraq VP says his bodyguards,
employees jailed in secret prisons and subjected to
torture
21.2.2012
AFP
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Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi
has been hiding in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan
region since December 2011. Photo: Reuters
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February
21, 2012
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Iraq's fugitive Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi said his bodyguards and
other employees are being held in secret prisons and
subjected to torture, in an interview broadcast on
Monday.
Authorities have charged Hashemi, a Sunni, with
running a death squad. He has been hiding out since
December in the autonomous Kurdistan region of
northern Iraq, where the authorities have so far
declined to hand him over.
However, members of his bodyguard and employees of
his office have been detained in connection with the
case.
"All the arrested people from my bodyguards and the
employees of my office are being held in secret
prisons over which the ministry of justice has no
authority, and confessions are being taken from them
through torture," Hashemi said in the speech, which
was broadcast on various Iraqi channels.
"We have pictures and evidence proving that the
bodyguards were tortured, physically and
psychologically," Hashemi said.
Alleged confessions by Hashemi's guards have been
broadcast on television.
Hashemi also called on Iraqis "not to believe what
the spokesman of the Higher Judicial Council said
regarding the accusations."
The Higher Judicial Council "became a partner in
influencing public opinion" over a case that should
be investigated in secret,www.ekurd.net
he charged.
Hashemi said he wants "to appear in front of a fair
judicial system, and in circumstances that can lead
to the truth."
The judicial council's spokesman, Abdelsattar
Birakdar, has said "there are more than 150 crimes
mentioned in the confessions of Hashemi's
bodyguards" and called on Kurdistan authorities "to
move to hand over the vice president."
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author or news agency,
AFP
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